First of all, Selamat Hari Raya to all of y’all! I hope your Ramadan went well, insyaaAllah. My stomach can’t take all the ketupat/rendang/satay assault for the past 2 days you guys. Thankfully Ramadan is over and we can start exercising normally again!

During one of the Ramadan weekends my family and I had our iftar at the zi char place Rasa Istimewa C2K, which is located at Choa Chu Kang Park. I actually really love the place because the food is always really good and it’s kind of perfect for a low-key, satisfying dinner with the fam.

Fat, squishy dates YUM.

The decor is kind of kitschy and eclectic, but I am grateful for the ubiquity of ceiling fans.

Halal zi char/seafood places are kind of few and far between in the West, particularly compared to areas like Chai Chee, teeming with competing halal seafood restaurants, so I am really grateful this place exists!

Officially halal!

Where good halal food congregates…in my mouth and belly, maybe.

We like to start off with some Satay ($0.60 a stick for beef/chicken/babat, and $0.70 a stick for mutton).

We ordered 20 mutton and 10 chicken this time. I LOVE mutton satay; they’re just so juicy and satisfying; much more so than chicken, which my younger brother prefers. So my family will drive up to JB once in a while to have some cheap seafood; the satay there somehow is at best on par with the ones at Rasa Istimewa, and I find the sticks here much meatier than the anemic onces across the causeway. I suppose those places in JB cater almost exclusively to Singaporean tourists and don’t feel the need to improve their satay. But really, the satay at Rasa Istimewa is savoury, sweet, juicy, and super flavourful. LOVE. The peanut sauce is also surprisingly decent – spicy, and rich. 9/10 for the satay here!

I forgot to take a photo of the Fish Otak-Otak ($0.60 per piece) but it merits special mention. They serve the otak-otak piping hot, and the flesh within is moist, juicy, spicy, and SO GOOD. It doesn’t have that compact, smooth, too-processed taste and texture you get with some vendors. Love these, and will keep coming back for them. 9.5/10

The bulk of our order here is made of the Set Menu 1 for 4-6 pax ($88 excluding 7% GST).

The first dish of the set is the fish; you can choose between Grouper or Siakap fish, and my family always picks the Grouper Fish in Tiga Rasa (tri-flavour) Sauce. I think they must mean sweet, sour, and spicy? Who even knows.

It’s actually really delicious. The sauce is savoury, sweet, and sour, and garnished with these amazing strips of what I think is mango. Because of that the taste is rather Thai. Totally delicious. The fish is fried just right; crispy exterior (I personally love crunching on the crispy bones) and tender, rich fish meat within. 9/10

Item number two is prawns with a choice of 5 different cooking styles – cereal butter, black pepper, nyonya style, sambal chili, and sweet & sour. Our choice is the Cereal Butter Prawns.

YUMMM. These are also divine. The cereal bits are buttery and sweet; in short, super tasty. The bits of coriander are a great complement to the dish! The prawns are usually really fresh, and I confess there’s nothing I love more than to savour the heads (I know some people find it a little disgusting). 10/10

The third dish of the set is chicken with a choice of 5 styles. I’m not even going to talk about the others – the Prawn Paste Chicken is Rasa Istimewa’s specialty and I LOVE IT.

YUMMMM. Look at how crispy and un-oily it looks.

The chicken is always so crispy yet juicy. The prawn paste taste is moderate so that it doesn’t overwhelm the senses, but you can taste enough of it. Perfect all the time. 10/10

The fourth dish is the vegetable course – I always go for the Kangkong Belacan because that’s really my favourite dish at every seafood/zi char place.

Rasa Istimewa usually does them pretty well, but on this particular visit I found the kangkong to be a little dry and bland. I think they didn’t cook it in enough belacan sauce, which is a huge pity. Subjectively I loved it anyway and ate almost all of it, but I know objectively it could be better if the kangkong were coated in more sauce and if the taste had been stronger. 7/10 this time around.

The fifth and final item on Set Menu 1 is the soup course. My family always goes for the Seafood Tom Yum Soup since we figure it is probably the tastiest of the lot:

Not too inspiring, I must say. Plus those crabsticks are just not ideal.

The soup contains prawns, fish slices, cabbage, oyster mushrooms (which I LOVE LOVE) and -gasp- crabsticks. Hate seeing them – they make the dish feel really cheap in a bad way. That being said, the taste of the soup is decent; it’s flavourful and spicy. The ingredients could stand a bit of an upgrade but I guess it’s not the star attraction of the menu, or of the restaurant for that matter. 6.5/10

On top of the set menu, I’ll usually add a plate of Fried Sotong With Salted Egg (S$18 for a small portion):

All in all, I think it’s a great place to bring your family – the setting is casual. Service can sometimes be a little elusive, particularly on busy nights. The trick is to attach yourself to one particular server that looks industrious (there are a few; we’ve definitely singled them out with great success). Try to stick to one server to avoid frustration and disappointment. My experience here has been mostly positive. You just need to have a little patience 🙂

A night view of the restaurant from afar.

Below is a gallery of the full menu so you guys can decide in advance what you’d like to eat there. Happy selecting! Oh I almost forgot – please try the sour plum ice blended drink here! It’s SO yummmmm and provides a refreshing counterpoint to all of the food you’ll be eating!